Former President Barack Obama campaigning for President-elect Joe Biden — Photo by Chuck Kennedy / Biden for President
Former President Barack Obama has admitted that he used anti-LGBTQ slurs when he was a teenager.
Writing in his new memoir A Promised Land, Obama wrote that he was “ashamed” of his use of slurs such as “fag.”
The LGBTQ ally said that going to college made him aware of the discrimination faced by LGBTQ people, by “opening my heart to the human dimensions of issues that I’d once thought of in mainly abstract terms.”
The former president also revealed that his own great aunt was lesbian and would try to hide her relationship from family members.
“I grew up in the 70s, a time when LGBTQ life was far less visible to those outside the community,” Obama writes, “so that [Obama’s grandmother] Toot’s sister (and one of my favorite relatives), Aunt Arlene, felt obliged to introduce her partner of 20 years as ‘my close friend Marge’ whenever she visited us in Hawaii.”
Margaret Arlene Payne died in 2014, aged 87, with her obituary noting that she was survived by family, including then-President Obama, and her “friend Margery Duffy.”
A Promised Land is the first time that Obama has publicly spoken about his aunt’s sexuality.
In the memoir, published Wednesday, Obama also expands on the anti-gay language he used during his childhood.
“Like many teenage boys in those years, my friends and I sometimes threw around words like ‘fag’ or ‘gay’ at each other as casual put-downs — callow attempts to fortify our masculinity and hide our insecurities,” he writes.
“Once I got to college and became friends with fellow students and professors who were openly gay, though, I realized the overt discrimination and hate they were subject to,” Obama continues. “as well as the loneliness and self-doubt that the dominant culture imposed on them. I felt ashamed of my past behavior — and learned to do better.”
Obama also referenced his focus on LGBTQ rights during his two terms in office, including repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on openly gay servicemembers, publicly supporting same-sex marriage while running for reelection in 2012, and banning federal contractors from discriminating against against LGBTQ people.
“Alongside abortion, guns, and just about anything to do with race, the issues of LGBTQ rights and immigration had occupied center stage in America’s culture wars for decades,” he writes, “in part because they raised the most basic question in our democracy — namely, who do we consider a true member of the American family, deserving of the same rights, respect, and concern that we expect for ourselves?”
Obama continues: “I believed in defining that family broadly — it included gay people as well as straight, and it included immigrant families that had put down roots and raised kids here, even if they hadn’t come through the front door. How could I believe otherwise, when some of the same arguments for their exclusion had so often been used to exclude those who looked like me?”
Sawyer Hemsley, co-founder and chief branding officer of Crumbl Cookies, recently came out as gay after an influencer's viral TikTok speculated about his sexuality.
Hemsley, who launched the billion-dollar cookie chain in 2017 with his cousin Jason McGowan while a student at Utah State, has become a prominent face of the brand on TikTok.
Hemsley addressed the speculation in an Instagram post, writing, "here have been people online trying to define me, twist things, and share conversations that feel harmful. Instead of letting others write my story, I want to share it in my own words. The truth is, over the past few years I've come to understand and accept that I'm gay."
Police in York, Pennsylvania, have arrested 22-year-old Devin Harbaugh on charges of aggravated assault and strangulation. He is accused of choking a drag performer outside Gift Horse Brewing Company on August 22 in an attack that allegedly targeted three people for their perceived sexual orientation and gender expression.
According to police affidavits, Harbaugh and the victim -- identified as drag performer Sible Sible Stackhouse, known to friends as Vayne Disharoon -- were both at Gift Horse that night when an altercation broke out between their friend groups.
Social conservatives are claiming vindication for their views after Robin Westman, the 23-year-old behind the August 27 mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, was identified as transgender by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in an X post.
Armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, Westman fired dozens of rounds into the church during a morning Mass attended by students from the affiliated Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said, as reported by The Associated Press.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.